


Wonder of the Worlds

by iwouldbemerry



Category: Alice (TV 2009)
Genre: AU, Alice Pays Attention AU, Cheesy Hatter, F/M, Moral ambiguity is recognized and called out, No Faux Action Girls Here, Street smart Alice, like goddamn I love the movie but she's naive in all the wrong places
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-15 23:10:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18082754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwouldbemerry/pseuds/iwouldbemerry
Summary: Alice isn't quite sure what the most impossible thing is: crazy skyscraper physics, mushrooms the size of mountains, or that Hatter actually thinks he's pulling the wool over her eyes.





	1. Chapter 1

The longer Alice stumbled through the abandoned city, the worse she felt. Climbing up and down endless flights of stairs (all on the outside of these godforsaken skyscrapers, were they afraid to put them indoors?), ducking through doors after the rat-catcher, who refused to explain where he was taking her. The longer she walked away from the lake, the colder she grew.

It wasn't just a physical cold that settled into her skin as the wind whipped through her; if disbelief had a manifest form, she felt herself slowly freezing solid with each new thing that happened after Jack started acting weird.

Sort-of proposing, then hiding the ring, then getting KIDNAPPED. Following him, then getting mugged and kidnapped herself by that horrible, oddly dressed old man. That awful padded cage, then falling forever into the lake and having to swim miles to get out again.

Honestly, she was surprised she was still alive. Hadn't she read once that if you fell too far into water it might as well have been concrete?

Whatever. These people seemed to ignore the laws of science and logic as it suited them, folding up space and tucking it away in ways that shouldn't have been possible. She didn't know much about architecture, but the whole cage issue aside, she didn't think it was physically possible to build the sort of structures they had here.

Alice hadn't been the sort to believe in impossible things for exactly ten years and three days, when she realized her father didn't care enough to come back.

She bumped into the rat-catcher, who had stopped and was standing far too close to the edge of a sidewalk-precipice, and caught herself before she could physically recoil from the smell. Flinching here seemed like a great way to overbalance and die. She scraped freezing, wet hair out of her eyes and looked across the grassy, overgrown bridge to the next building.

The man seemed nervous, eyes stuttering as fast as the letters of the marquee sign which spelled out TEA SHOP…. TEA SHOP… over and over, matching around endlessly. 

If it hadn't been for the skyscrapers above and below, it would have looked more like an abandoned strip mall than anything else. 

Alice did nearly fall when he grabbed her arm, protesting as he tied a strip of filthy fabric over the scrollwork burned into her arm.

“Cover the Glow,” he muttered urgently. “They see you Oyster,” he said, almost spitting the name, “you dead.”

At that, she didn't untie it, though she didn't really expect the flimsy disguise to work. Soaking wet and wearing date night clothes, the rag obviously was hiding something, and how hard would it be to guess what it was?

She jumped again when he whispered, “I go, count ten, then follow.” He started across the bridge and swarmed through the doors like a rat himself.

Thawing a little in outrage, Alice felt more awake than she had all night. The Man Who Knows had better have some goddamn answers, after all this.


	2. The Man Who Knows

Inside the tea shop was a madhouse. An odd juxtaposition of high tech light walls and LED signs as well as green grasses and flowers growing right up out of the floor, what she had expected to look like a sketchy restaurant looked more like a nightmarish stock exchange. Only instead of futures, or slips of paper, they all screamed and wailed and waved little glass bottles of… tea?

As she walked carefully through the roaring crowd, she saw the colored liquids inside called tea, and Wonder, and many other names, but they all seemed to be emotions. Lust, Passion, Joy, seemed to be popular. 

Were they drugs? she wondered, as she drew up in front of a podium bearing a snoring heap of person in too-large clothes. They couldn't possibly be the real thing.

“A new tea has just come on the market,” announced the man at the podium, sitting bolt upright after flailing inside his overlarge coat. 

Alice listened in growing confusion and horror as he described this wonder potion that could ease your guilt if, say, you had murdered someone or abandoned your family. 

“Clear Conscience!” he shouted, waving the bottle with a mere sip of clear liquid inside. “From that Wonder of All Wonders, the Hearts Casino!”

In the moment of silence that followed, Alice could almost hear herself think, I bet that's where they've taken Jack, but then the whole room exploded with sound, even louder than before, as the entire crowd of strangely-dressed, guilt-ridden people clamored for a taste of the new Wonder.

A rough hand fastened on her elbow and dragged her backwards out of the crowd, and she nearly twisted to sink fingers into the face behind her until she saw it was the rat-catcher. He motioned frantically for her to keep quiet and follow him. She didn't have much choice with him dragging her by the arm, but she let herself be towed through the screaming throng and through a dark hallway to a door. Why had he bothered to have them enter separately, then?

Possibly he was waiting for them to be distracted, she allowed, but then the doors opened up onto a room that was a real wonder, even after the day's strange events so far.

A warehouse loft painted freshly white, appointed with chic high end furniture and a few refurbished vintage pieces. Alice saw glass and steel everywhere, as well as bright green grass in a perfect trimmed square like an area rug. It was strange and beautiful and oddly welcoming, for all it should have been cold.

She was still soaking wet from the lake, though, and had just enough time to think how handy it was to have grasses for a rug since she was basically watering them, when the white, high-backed desk chair turned round and revealed a man in a brown straw trilby hat, holding a glass teacup and saucer.

“Would you like a cup of tea,” asked the Man Who Knows, wearing a smile that was more of a smirk.

Thinking of the scene outside, Alice nearly said no, but she could smell Earl Grey and she was still freezing and she would have murdered someone for a hot drink and a change of clothes.

“That would be lovely, thank you,” she replied, “as long as it's not one of the concoctions they sell outside.”

“Not hardly,” he said, standing promptly to pour her a cup from a round glass teapot filled with steaming amber liquid. She could see the leaves swirl in the bottom as the tea filled her cup. “You don't need them, and you couldn't afford them anyway. Cream and sugar?”

“Both, please,” she said slowly, leaving the first comment alone. He doctored her tea, handed her the cup, and stood there, appraising her with a raised eyebrow, as she inhaled the steam. She swallowed a sigh of pleasure as the hot tea brought a little feeling back into her hands.

“So,” he said, when she'd finished the cup and set it carefully on his desk. “Ratty, here, tells me that you're looking for someone.”

My boyfriend, she thought, but didn't say it. She wasn't sure if it was true after tonight.

“A man named Jack Chase,” she said. “He was abducted and brought here by men in suits, led by one with a white rabbit pin on his lapel. I followed them, but lost track once I… got away from the ship with the boxes.”

She wasn't sure if she ought to say things like escaped, broke out, etc. to a man they were paying for information.

“You followed them? Wow,” he scrawled, stretching the word out a few syllables. He looked over at Ratty-- how obvious a name was that-- with raised eyebrows and a teasing smile, then dropped the smile in disgust when he remembered who he was.

Alice was abruptly irritated with his whole attitude. Tea aside, there was nothing she hated more than being handled.

As satisfying as it would have been to shout, though, and demand information, she forced herself to calm the hell down. She knew she'd get nothing if she didn't keep what little control she had over the conversation.

“Right,” the man said, with the air of having decided something. “You came here looking for Jack, and you came to me to help. Ratty says you tried to pay him?”

“I have a little money,” she said carefully, “but I understand you don't use that here.” Why couldn't she have worn more more jewelry to dinner? At least that would be something to trade.

“Pieces of paper?” He nodded, then shook his head. “Pointless.”

I mean, she thought, yes but no. You can't eat them but they're a lot smaller and lighter and universal than trade goods, which is why we switched over in the first place.

Now not being the right time for a World Civ lecture, though, she held her tongue.

“Ratty says you're Alice,” he continued, walking around her as if she were on display. “The Alice of Legend.”

“Tell him who you are!” the rat-catcher urged, and she couldn't help but glare a little in irritation.

“Idiot,” the man muttered, cutting off whatever she might have said. “She can't be that Alice. A hundred and fifty years ago, that was. Oysters don't even live that long.”

“I still want a good price, Hatter,” Ratty said petulantly, and she looked over at him in alarm.

She thought about punching him in his smirking face, and about saying she wasn't for sale, but it was pretty clear he wasn't all that useful, in terms of helping her find Jack. 

“Give me my twenty bucks back, then,” she told him, catching him by the coat.

“You said it was mine!”

“If you helped me find who I was looking for,” she snapped. “You aren't helping any more, and you don't use it here anyway. He's going to give you something you will use. Give it back.”

He shoved the sodden paper into her hand and staggered, complaining, towards the man in the hat-- really, first a man named Ratty and now one named Hatter, what the hell were these people thinking-- but stopped short when he told him sharply to keep off the grass.

Now it was Alice he looked to in amusement. His face was rather round, but the angled hat and scruffy facial hair made him edgier and a little mercurial. In her current position, she wasn't sure she liked the idea of changeable at all.

He headed to a white-lit shelf behind his desk, on which was lined a row of the glass bottles, Wonders, she'd seen before. The bottles were shaped a bit like beakers, and bore letters spelling out the contents inside, each one a different color of the rainbow like a scattering of candy or jewels.

He picked up one bottle with a sky blue liquor inside, then looked over at Ratty, frowning in dislike. He put it back and selected another, a yellow one, and adopted a charming, cultivated air of salesmanship.

“The taste of human Excitement! Sweet nectar from the casino. Fifty Oysters were drained of every last drop of hullabaloo, all so you, Ratty, could taste what it's like to win, just once.”

Ratty lunged forward, reaching, but Hatter yanked the bottle back.

“Warning,” he said, half stern, half bored. He'd given this spiel before. “Don't take it on an empty stomach and DON'T take more than a tiny drop at a time. The experience might burst your shriveled-up little heart.”

He actually made grabby-hands, she thought, fascinated, until he had the bottle in his hands.

“Go.” He was imperious as he gave it over and waved him off. The man scurried away with his prize like a… yes, she had to admit he was well named. 

“He really smells,” she heard from behind her. Hatter stood regarding the hand he had touched him with a pained air. Whether feigned or real, he was acting kind of childish.

“Oysters were drained,” she said deliberately, weighing the words and watching his reactions.

He startled. “Did I say drained? Ah. They keep them-- you-- alive, in the Casino. Alive, and… moderately happy.”

“Why am I an Oyster,” she asked. “This?” 

She stripped off the rag from her arm, looking again at the curls and strokes of green. It looked like a tattoo, honestly, and it still stung like one.

“Yeah,” he said, scratching his head. “That's not gonna come off.”

No shit, she grumbled to herself. It's a radiation burn. It hurts. I know it won't come off.

“Only people from your world turn green when burnt by the light from the Scarab. It's the Suits’ way of branding their catch.”

You're really not doing a great job convincing me that Jack's okay and you're gonna help me out here, dude.

“So you get the tea, all those… Wonders, from humans? People get stolen away and farmed for drugs like this?”

He winced again at her tone. “Not me, specifically. You know why they call me Hatter?”

She glanced pointedly at his hat, then crossed her arms over her chest to suppress a shiver. Her hair was still wet, and even out of the wind she was still freezing. 

“Ah. No. I mean. Because I'm always there when they pass the hat. There's nothing I like more than to help people like you!”

“Why, because you own a tea shop and I'm an Oyster?” She was starting to wonder if he planned to help her or drain her too, turn her into a row of little glass vials.

“No!” 

He looked actually disgusted and mildly horrified by the concept, so that was something.

“You don't trust me. I am genuinely hurt,” he fumed. Maybe not. He still looked like he was acting a part. “Here I am giving you valuable information about our august economical infrastructure, and you accuse me of something like that.”

“You don't get to be offended, you barely know me,” Alice said, laughing. “Look, you don't have to tell me exactly what's going on if you don't want to, but at least don't lie to my face about the fact that you do HAVE an angle here. I'm not stupid.”

The first glimmer of something real-- respect, embarrassment at getting called out-- appeared in his face.

“Fine. I know people who like to help you Oysters, and hurt the Casino. The emotions they source ruin lives, you know. I can get you to them-- if I scratch their back, they'll scratch mine, yeah?”

“Sounds reasonable to me,” Alice replied.

He headed over to a glass wardrobe full of rich fabric and leather shoes and nice hats. He glanced back once, looking her over, before returning with an armful of deep purple velvet. 

The coat was lovely, but beneath it was a shirt, waistcoat, and trousers in beautiful, sturdy, jewel toned fabrics.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, smoothing her fingers over the warm clothes. “I still don't have anything else I can give you, though. Why are you helping me?”

“Do I need a reason to help a pretty girl in a very wet dress?”

Alice, infuriated and a little worried, said nothing at all. Hatter smirked and turned away so she could change.

Once she was dressed, wet clothes folded small and tucked in her pockets for later, the Hatter strode to the back of the room and opened a hidden door. Instantly, the freezing wind filled the room, whipping her hair across her face.

“Long way to go. Do try to keep up.”

She took a deep breath, stuffing down her hatred of the darkening city, and followed Hatter out into the twilight.


	3. City in the Sky

Alice felt as if her bones were made of lead, as Hatter wound his way through and down the labyrinth of skyscrapers.

Running and fighting and falling and swimming and then walking for what had to be several miles was more exercise than she got in a week, even counting self defense classes and walking to work, and that strange sequence of exhausting events had taken place during a single day-long span of time. And that was AFTER a whole day spent running errands, cooking with her mom, and the disastrous date with Jack that had caused all this. Alice hadn't slept in about thirty six hours, even if time did seem to run differently here. Despite her best efforts, she was starting to slow down and make mistakes.

Had she thought about it at all, she might have realized that saying nothing about how tired she felt was one of them, but due to sleep deprivation, stubbornness, or both, she remained silent, and it was only when she slipped as she descended a rusty ladder after Hatter that she realized she was going to get herself killed. 

Her boot tread slipped on decaying metal, slamming her whole body against the rungs and then away. Her eyes shot open and adrenaline flooded her brain--her hands were locked to the rungs and she wasn't falling, but as she looked down to see that she'd actually made it all the way down, her eyes strayed too far, over the side of the drop off.

It suddenly occurred to her, really sunk in, how ridiculously, stupidly high up she was. 

I think this is how high up I was when I fell from the Scarab, Alice thought giddily. Only there's no water below us this time. If I fall from here, if I fall…

The world rippled and the void yawned beneath her.

Alice wrapped as much of herself around the ladder as she physically could, sweat prickling over her neck and back. She clamped her mouth shut because the alternative was screaming. If she screamed she would fall, and it was a long, long way down…

“Alice!”

Oh god, Alice thought. My hands are starting to shake. I can't hold on--

“Alice! Look at me. No, don't look there, look at ME. Yep, right here, stunningly gracious and wearing an excellent hat. Come on, you can do it. Look at me. I'll get you somewhere safe.”

It was the hardest thing she had ever done, to peel her eyes away from the chasm and glance at Hatter. Despite the goofy tone and flowery words, his warm brown eyes were firm and sure, and Alice was able to pry her fingers off the iron rungs and shakily take his offered hand.

Step by agonizing step, they crept away from the edge. It wasn't til they had rounded the corner and stopped in a grassy courtyard that Alice was able to breathe again.

She collapsed under a scraggly oak tree and stared at her clasped hands, still shaking with leftover adrenaline. 

“Why couldn't you build this city on the ground?” she whispered, trying to smile and failing. 

Slowly, slowly, feeling came back to her hands. Her heartbeat returned to something normal. Once she could take a breath without gasping for it, she dared to look up at Hatter.

Rather than the disgust she had half-feared to see, Hatter mostly looked somber, if a little perplexed. One hand scratched at the back of his neck, the other shoved in his pocket. The very picture of a man unsure what to say next.

“I don't… like heights,” she forced out. Obvious, maybe, but she had to explain somehow. “It’s not usually a problem back home. But here, with everything going on with Jack, I just shoved how tired I was and much I hated everything away, and it all… just… it hit me all at once. How easy it would be to just. Fall.”

She ducked her head, but reluctantly looked back up at him. Her mother had always impressed the importance of eye contact when making an apology.

“Anyway. I'm sorry I freaked out on you. Thanks for talking me off the ledge.” 

That would have been immensely funny in literally any other situation, but Alice was so tired that she knew she would not stop laughing hysterically once she started.

“S'fine.” The Hatter waved it away awkwardly. He took his hat off and turned it over in his hands. “It’s the fastest way… where we need to go. Still.”

He put his hat back on, then stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at her with raised eyebrows. “Hadn't needed to ask before, but if you and heights don't… how did you ‘get away from’ the Scarab? If you ended up in the lake, it would have been--”

Her bout of vertigo had politely unlocked the sheer mind-freezing terror of the aborted flight which she'd been able to repress until now. 

“I was in a box. Cage thing. Padded on the inside. I jimmied the latch with my hairpin, but I didn't realize they hung us outside the actual ship until I'd already opened it. They open down, you know. Stupid design. I caught the edge but I couldn't hold on. Fell a few hundred feet into the lake. Took forever to swim back.”

She did laugh then, and it sounded like a real laugh even if it wasn't hers so she figured she was nearly okay to keep going.

“I really hadn't thought about it like that until just now. Missing boyfriend, different world, kind of a bigger reason to panic than fear of heights.”

“Boyfriend, huh?”

Alice closed her eyes. Yes, this is exactly what she wants to think about right now. 

“I watched him get beaten and abducted, Hatter. He could be a stranger and I'd still have run after him.”

“Doubt you'd risk falling to your death for a stranger, though.” His eyes were knowing and she was abruptly filled with the desire to shove him off a building.

Saving her life did not entitle him to comment on her relationship, however. 

“I guess I'm confused why you expect me to leave someone I know to horrible, malingering captivity, then,” she said flatly. She stood up. 

“Seriously, let's go. If I sit here any longer I'll fall asleep, and I doubt it's safe.”

Mercifully, Hatter shut up, though Alice suspected that would not be the last time he brought the subject up. Holding out a hand--his skin was surprisingly warm and dry, despite the city's chill, she noticed-- he helped her to her feet and they were off again

It wasn't til much later that Alice realized their path, though circuitous, never again led that near to the worst of the edges.


	4. Stories

A few hours later, Alice was nearly asleep on her feet when Hatter ducked though a crumbling fence and stopped sharply. Looking around from under his hat, he waited til he was sure they hadn't been followed before knocking twice on a shabby speakeasy door set into the faded brick wall.

Swaying, Alice waited to see who would answer, and tried to look harmless. 

Probably an easy feat, given the circumstances, but she hoped she didn't look as weary as she felt, at least.

No one answered, until Hatter sighed.

“I'm returning a lib’ry book,” he said flatly. “Th’ works of Edwin Morquardt.”

He exchanged a brief glance of irritation with Alice. 

The small flap under in the door snapped aside with a sudden crack that was oddly loud in the alleyway. A pair of pale blue eyes under wizened eyebrows peered out.

“How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail?” The owner of the eyes sounded very old, very crusty, and very English.

Hatter flicked his eyes up to the heavens. “He pours water of the Nile on every golden scale.” The words came in a hurried mumble, and she stifled a smirk. At least he knew they sounded ridiculous.

In a world with impossible physics and gangsters who stole people away, why on earth would you have stupid passphrases? It didn't sound anything like conversation, so if the other person didn't know the reply, you'd just given yourself away as someone with something to hide. 

Alice had just enough time to mentally roll her eyes before the door creaked open, revealing a little old man in an ancient military uniform. 

“Thank you very much,” Alice said gratefully. She smiled faintly at the man, who ducked his head and then motioned for them both to move forward.

Hatter ushered her inside, but no sooner had they both entered than the door crashed shut, the lights sprang on, and the floor juddered and sank away-- they were in an elevator going down. 

Except, Alice realized as she staggered and tried to keep balance, that it was also a school bus. Someone had taken an entire bus and converted it into an actual elevator, seats and all. She swayed and half sat, half fell into one of them gratefully as the wallpapered walls of the shaft rolled past.

“Don't worry. The resistance will be able to help.” 

Hatter sounded encouraging as he stood holding one of the support poles. She looked up at him and did see that his face looked a little more open, his stance a little more relaxed, and felt a little less worried herself.

She gave him a small smile, and hoped very much that he was telling the truth.

 

The doors creaked open and Alice looked up into the barrel of a gun. 

She went quiet and still, freezing in a way that she was ashamed to think about later. She could hear Hatter speaking urgently behind her but it wasn't until the little old man mumbled gruffly that the barrel lowered and Alice was able to think clearly again.

She met the eyes of an elderly lady, who wore a knotted kerchief over old-fashioned curls, and looked very apologetic indeed.

“Terribly sorry, dear, but with so many dastardly characters about, one simply can't be too careful.”

“Of course,” Alice replied blankly. What had the old man said to make her drop her guard?

She cradled the vintage long-bored pistol like a bouquet of flowers and gave Alice a watery smile, but squinted suspiciously at Hatter. 

“You know your next delivery isn't scheduled yet,” she snapped crossly. “Dodo won't be best pleased. You might have broken cover.”

Hatter grinned with too many teeth to be truly polite. “I've been playing the game awhile, Owl my love. I wouldn't worry.”

He pulled two small parcels out of his pockets, each palm-sized and wrapped in paper. Handing one each to their escorts as they started down a long, carpeted hallway, Alice could see their eyes visibly widen.

“Real cheese,” whispered the old man hungrily.

“As good as the confits from last time,” the elderly woman added in reverence. The parcels disappeared into their tattered and layered historical costumes so fast it looked like magic.

Alice glanced over at Hatter, questioning.

He slowed his pace to walk next her as they passed ornate scrollwork and oil pairings dark with varnish.

“A lot of the resistance has been hunted by the Suits. Far too dangerous for them to leave the hideaway here-- I make supply runs to make sure they're all fed and boarded, especially with the recent floods of refugees from the Queen's latest purges.”

His face was flat, bordering on grim, as he described what sounded more like the political climate of the Cold War than anything Alice had ever experienced. She was suddenly, viciously aware of how much she didn't know, but knew she didn't have the time to ask right now.

The elegant, faded hallway turned and one side dropped away behind a hip-high railing of gold. Alice stopped and stared, forgetting her exhaustion in a moment of pure disbelief.

Shed forgotten how they liked to play with space here.

 

The halls up til now had looked like the inside of an old theater-- dilapidated, yes, but beautifully wallpapered and carpeted, with lots of faded gold scrollwork and decapitated statues and warm, bubbling light from the few sconces which still worked. The rails to the right should have looked out over a lovely foyer where men and women in rich clothes could have mingled and sipped champagne, like something out of the Gatsby movie.

Instead, the mezzanine where Alice and the others stood dropped away, opening into an impossible cavernous grotto built largely of books.

Several thousand feet wide, and stretching back into dusty, lantern-lit darkness, there were mountains and mountains of books, both arranged on shelves like a library and piled like stones into streets and crude buildings. It was a city, she realized, tracing the rough shapes of alleys, courtyards, and even a rudimentary castle. A city built of books and lit by candles and torches, hidden underground the upper labyrinth of skyscrapers and bridges.

If she squinted, she could see people huddled around the lights-- dressed in tattered clothes, fearful and despairing, by their body language. There were families around fires, sitting on their luggage or leaning against the shelves, a few lone figures creeping through the paper pathways. Some read the books which made up their world, but most just looked desperately tired.

Alice could relate.

"They're all hiding?" she asked Hatter, thoroughly subdued. The initial shock had faded into a general aura of sadness and exhaustion. She had thought her own problems were bad-- and they were, not that it was a competition-- but the sheer weight of misery from the hidden city made her feel tired as death. What a strange, horrible world this was.

Hatter nodded grimly. "Anyone who didn't buy into the Queen's obsessions, or bow to her whims. This isn't all of them, not by a long shot, but we save those we can and hide them here in the Great Library."

He braced his arms on the rails, looking oddly fierce. "Five thousand years of history she would have erased, if we hadn't gotten to it first. History, science, philosophy, law-- knowledge is the greatest threat. As short-sighted as she is, she's not stupid. Unfortunate, really, but if she were, she wouldn't have been able to seize Wonderland."

"Wait," Alice said dumbly. She snatched him back from the railing. "The Queen, the Hearts-- you mean _Alice in Wonderland? _You've got to be kidding-- that's not real! It's a kid's book!"__

____

____

You think _I'm _Alice, that Alice? No. No way.__

____

____

He looked at her, eyebrows raised, until the blood drained from her face.

"Does this look like a children's story to you?"


	5. Shots Fired

Alice stumbled away from him, mind utterly blank, but was saved by the return of the old woman with the gun. Owl. She hadn't even noticed when she'd left. The lines in her face were more defined, with grumpiness or worry or both.

"He can't see you just yet," she informed Hatter sharply. "You weren't expected, and it's far too late for today."

Hatter's face darkened. "I don't have a lot of time to wait around on his pleasure," he replied. "I've been away too long from my shop as it is. I wouldn't be here if it weren't that important, Owl."

She sniffed. "And what about your young lady here? Safer she may be, but she's dead on her feet. It can't be so important it won't wait til morning."

"You don't--" 

The words caught in Alice's throat, rusty with lack of sleep. Hatter glanced over, face inscrutable beneath the hat.

"You don't have to stay." Unlike Ratty, Alice didn't really want him to leave-- there was too much she didn't know, and she felt a sort of connection after their long trek here, awkward as it had been. He was obnoxious and mercenary and clearly hiding something, but he was the only friend she had here, as tenuous as that sounded.

Hatter scoffed, sweeping her a bow so ornate it dripped with disdain. "Wouldn't dream of it, Alice my dear. We have a deal, and unlike some of our unfortunately mutual acquaintances, I don't scurry out when things start to get interesting."

She shrugged, aware that her face probably showed every inch of her relief. "Felt you should have the option."

Owl clapped her daintily-gloved hands briskly. "Well," she said archly, Scottish accent thicker than ever, "now that's settled, let's find you a nice place to rest, dear. Hardly palatial accommodations, but you're welcome to what we have. Any enemy of the Queen is a friend of ours, aye?"

Alice nodded, and followed shakily after as they headed down the hall, leaving the hidden city behind as they turned a corner. After sharing an entire pot of tea, and a platter of extremely stale finger sandwiches and crumbly tea cookies, she was shown into a faded office space. The window was painted over, and a Tiffany lamp with a cracked shade cast ruby and emerald patches over the walls. Pale spots showed where old pictures or awards had hung. One empty bookshelf and a velvet chaise lounge were all the furniture that remained, besides a pile of books like a nightstand.

Hatter waved her in. "This is you-- I've got a room down the hall. We'll come get you in the morning."

Alice sank down on the balding velvet with a groan, bending over to unzip her boots. "Thanks, Hatter. Again."

He scratched his head.

"Probably for the best we get a bit of rest before meeting Dodo," he admitted reluctantly. "He's a bit much even without a full day of running from the law."

She snorted. "I can only imagine." She draped her dress over the back of the couch to dry. Hatter turned to go, but hesitated when she called after him.

"Why are they being so nice to me? I get you know them, but I figured they would hate an-- someone like me." 

Alice had noticed how careful Hatter was to avoid mentioning her name or what they were here to speak to Dodo, the head of the Resistance about. He'd only told Owl that the Suits were after her and she needed to hide for a bit until she could get out of the city. Even after the tea which had served as supper, he hadn't taken his own leather jacket off, which gave her an excuse to do the same, and keep the Glow as hidden as possible. Anything to avoid a hint of her being an Oyster, rather than just another refugee from the Queen.

"You're not wrong," he said carefully. "Owl, Dormie, and the others-- they're not bad people, but they've been afraid a long time. Figured it would be easier to hide you in plain sight-- the fewer who know who you are, the better."

"Alice of Legend, you mean, or an Oyster?" She knew she sounded bitter, but couldn't help it. "I still can't believe all this is actually real." Or didn't want to.

Hatter stuck his hands in his pockets. "You Oysters believed we don't exist because you couldn't find us. Quite frankly, we should have kept it that way." His voice was nearly cruel it was so matter-of-fact. "One of many reasons to hate the Queen and her whole house of cards. She's ruining our world, by dragging you lot in."

"And as far as you being Alice, _the_ Alice..." he shrugged. "That was ages ago, if it happened at all. I wouldn't worry about it much. It'll be enough to deal with, finding your boyfriend."

Alice flinched. Hatter smirked.

"And on that note, good night!" She hauled herself upright, crossed the room swiftly, and shut the door in his grinning face. Surprisingly, as she drifted into sleep under her gifted coat, his grin stayed with her. 

Though irritating, it was a much nicer thought than everything else that had happened that day.

 

Alice slept like the dead, and woke up to a Hatter who looked as indecently fresh as if he hadn't spent the previous day running around the city. She rubbed sleep and old eyeliner out of her eyes, used the tips of her ring finger to shape whatever was left, and hoped she didn't look too ridiculous as she donned her coat, refolded and pocketed her now-dry dress, and followed him out of the room.

Hatter walked with her and Owl and the old man-- Dormie? Dormouse?-- along the edge of the Great Library, until they reached a much nicer office than the one she'd stayed in. Like Hatter's loft, she saw again the strange influence of plant life as well as regular furniture: in this case, a dark and glossy-leaved tree grew up along the corner of the room, spreading branches along the ceiling like a sheltering umbrella over mahogany bookshelves and a massive desk piled with books and fading papers.

A heavy-set man with a greying goatee and a black leather trench coat stood up as they entered, regarding Hatter with quiet disgust and Alice with a studied disinterest.

"What brings you here off schedule, Hatter?" Dodo looked less like a dumb bird and more like a bird of prey, the way his eyes assessed them. "It must be important, to risk blowing our entire operation."

"Stop your crowing," Hatter snapped. "I've brought more dangerous things than this down here, and I've had plenty of practice, keeping you lot fed and watered all these years."

Alice briefly thought about being insulted, but Hatter was already talking again.

"This is Alice." Owl gasped in the background, but the change in Dodo's face was electric. 

"She's looking for a man named Jack, who was probably taken to the Casino. She needs help to get him, and get back-- I thought of you, Dodo."

"You brought an Oyster to the most heavily-hunted place in all Wonderland," he growled, glaring at Alice and then Hatter as if he would very much like to see them dead. "And for no reason at all-- there's no getting anyone out of the Casino, Hatter, as well you know!"

Hatter laughed. "Please. The Resistance has contacts inside the Casino. Use them to get her guy."

Alice glanced back and forth between them. This was exactly the sort of information she needed, but as she watched Dodo's face get redder and redder with fury, she knew there was no way this would work out so easily.

"Even if we did," he said angrily, "which I can neither confirm nor deny, why on earth should we risk so much for so little? One Oyster? The regime itself won't falter, and they'd have the perfect opportunity to crush us!"

"Why would you get all the way in and not free everyone," Alice muttered. Owl glanced at her, startled. Hatter looked impressed. She couldn't tell if Dodo had heard her at all, for how little he seemed to care. 

"That would be way worse to the Queen, not to mention you'd save however many lives." 

It only made sense, if they were going to help her at all, to help the Resistance with their goals as well. Hatter gave her another long look, then shook his head and turned back to the Resistance leader.

"Anyhow you decide, it's not like you'd have to do it for nothing. Alice can pay you," Hatter replied, undisturbed. "And I want my usual cut, up front. You know you could use this opportunity if you had the balls."

Alice rather felt as if she'd never stopped falling. 

She locked eyes with Hatter when he glanced over. He did look slightly uncomfortable, but still mostly unrepentant.

"I can do what," she said, proud that she spoke in a regular tone, that she didn't scream, and that she sounded much calmer than she felt. "I thought we'd discussed this."

He glanced over at Dodo, still apoplectic with fury. "Show them the rock, Alice."

When she froze, he shrugged. "It's all you have."

He wasn't exactly wrong, but she recoiled from the thought as she recoiled from the idea he'd planned this all along.

Considering how the ring had come into her possession, she ordinarily wouldn’t even have considered bartering with it. Jack had-- what was the reverse of stealing? Forcibly gifting? Presents under false pretense?-- hidden it with her without asking, which made her think of old spy stories where stolen goods or national secrets were smuggled accidentally by civilians who didn't know what they carried.

He'd said it was a family heirloom, and even if she believed him, that didn't mean it wasn't stolen. He clearly knew he couldn't keep it with him. The man with the rabbit pin had assaulted her to get it. Until she knew what it was, and what it meant, she couldn't afford to let the ring out of her sight.

Besides, it was an absolutely gorgeous piece of jewelry, and she wanted to keep it herself. Jack had lied to make sure she had it, and she felt quite strongly that had erased whatever claim he had of his own.

All this crossed her mind in a split second as her hand tightened into a fist within her pocket, but it was distracting enough that she was caught off-guard when Dodo stalked over and wrenched her hand up to inspect the ring.

She gasped and yanked back, but it was too late. A look of incandescent fury and horror was writ across his face, and even Hatter looked wary at the sight.

"Impossible," he whispered. "Where did you get this?"

Alice said nothing, only scrabbled at his hand to try and free herself. Dodo grabbed her other wrist so she was trapped, squeezing far too hard.

"What is it?" Hatter asked sharply, removing his hands from his pockets. "What are you doing?"

"Your Oyster is wearing the _Stone of Wonderland_ on her finger," he hissed, eyes popping in his face. Alice heard their escorts gasp in shock, and glanced at Hatter, heart racing. He, too, looked completely stunned, though it didn't stop him from settling into a ready stance.

All at once, Alice saw guns trained on them both-- Owl and Dormie looked horrified, but still aimed at him unapologetically.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, voice thin and high with fear. She couldn't pull away, he was holding her too close, and hard enough to bruise. "I can't use this to trade with you."

"To trade-- how did this happen?" Dodo demanded. "Where did you get the Stone?"

"I don't--" 

Hatter interrupted her. "Where did you get it, Alice?" Angry and afraid, he looked incredibly dangerous.

"I didn't steal it!" 

Saying Jack had given it to her seemed like both a lie, and a really bad idea. Would that make them more or less likely to help get him out of the Casino? Dodo shook her roughly, and she was so startled she actually answered.

"Jack-- the man I'm looking for, the one in the Casino-- he gave it to me!"

"Well where did _he_ get it?" Dodo practically screamed at her.

"We can ask him when we get him out, can't we?" Alice wasn't sure where the sudden burst of courage came from, but she twisted both wrists out of his grasp and stepped back, shaking but ready. "If this is as important as you think, he might have more information you need."

She stood in a triangle with Dodo and Hatter now, but she kept her eyes trained on the Resistance leader, rather than think too hard about Hatter. She'd known he wasn't telling her everything, but she'd thought-- hoped-- that he wouldn't actually sell her out. She could decide if the thought was naive or just decent later, if things went well.

It suddenly occurred to her that if Hatter sided with Dodo, she wouldn't have any chance at all.

Alice darted a glance at him, but her gaze caught on the small black pistol that suddenly appeared in Dodo's hand. Like before, it was like a black hole sucking the rest of the world in, and she bit her lip rather than whimper in fear.

"Put the gun away," Hatter said flatly. His hands were raised, and though he was weaponless, everyone else in the room looked unaccountably frightened when he stepped forward. "We can all still get what we want here."

"Don't you get it?" Dodo hissed, gesturing wildly with the gun. "The Stone powers the Looking Glass! If we had it, we would control passage to the human world. If we could stop the Queen bringing more Oysters-- if we could get rid of them all, every trace of the other world, maybe we could save ours!"

"Oh, Dodo," whispered Owl.

Alice stepped back, horrified. Get rid of the-- would he really kill all the humans to get rid of the Queen? 

By the gun pointed once again at her forehead, he absolutely would.

Hatter stepped forward, arms out wide. "Come on, Dodo, put it away. You're scaring everyone!" He tried to keep his voice light, but he still sounded strained.

Dodo turned and fired in one movement-- with a crack, Hatter flew back to strike the wall and slid down it onto a pile of books, motionless.

Alice ran for her life, a sob caught in her throat.


	6. Well-Deserved Violence

She sprinted down the hallways, footfalls muffled by the ancient carpet, trying to remember the way to the elevator. There were surely other ways out of this labyrinth, but she had no time to look and couldn't linger here when everyone knew the territory better and would surely be after her. If not for the crime of being an Oyster, then surely for the goddamned Stone of Wonderland.

Her heart beat so hard in her chest she thought she'd fall over, but she refused to stop, turning one corner to dart along the hallway above the Great Library.

"Damn you, Jack," she gasped between breaths. "Damn you, too, Hatter." They were both responsible, and she was mad at them for putting her in this situation, even as she started to cry. Both dead or as good as, by this point, and now she had no idea what to do.

Escape first, introspection later.

She wasn't even sure which of the two men the tears were for, and tucked that uncomfortable thought away as well.

"Stop her! The girl, there-- don't let her get away!" Shots rang out, and she felt them fly past to bury themselves in the wall in puffs of shattered plaster.

Ahead, she saw the long narrow hall and knew the elevator was beyond. If she could just manage to reach it before Dodo and the others caught up!

She heard the sounds of a fight-- more gunshots, the clatter of a dropped gun, the soft muffled thump of fist against flesh-- and forced herself not to look back. She pounded up to the elevator door, breathing raggedly, and shoved the doors open, trying to ignore the shouts behind her.

The panels around the driver's seat were covered in a dismaying selection of buttons, toggles, dials, and levers. Stifling a scream of frustration, she punched and stabbed them at random, hoping to find the door controls or, better, the lift mechanism itself.

"Alice!" Hatter shouted, and she whirled around in shock.

He grappled with Dodo about halfway down the hall, face flushed and alive and not dead at all. His right hand crushed Dodo's pistol, impossibly, into a misshapen mass, and she watched in wonder as he wrestled the man to the floor. "It's the blue button! Get out of here!"

She turned and saw the one he meant, right by the wheel. She reached out automatically, but heard a yelp of pain and saw Hatter thrown back out of the corner of her eye. Dodo had drawn another gun from the pocket of his voluminous coat-- how many guns did he have in there-- and lunged at him.

Alice hesitated. Hatter barely held the gun angled away from his face with one hand, trying to brace the other man away with the other. Surely he could handle himself.

The gun inched closer to his face. Dodo growled, teeth bared in a rictus of madness.

Alice kicked his knees out from under him, and as he staggered and fell, she wrenched the gun out of his hand and hauled Hatter upright. Dodo reached for her, but she kicked him hard in the ribs and then fled down the hall with Hatter.

The doors hissed closed as they staggered inside, and the elevator shook and rumbled as they rose to the surface. Hatter staggered and fell against the seats, wincing. 

"How bad is it," Alice said urgently, then pulled at his burgundy tie to get at his shirt.

Hatter groaned, but she barely heard him as she registered that he was, in fact, wearing Kevlar body armor. The bullet which had struck him in the chest was deformed and mushroomed against the weave, and she pulled it off, blankly, like she'd picked bugs off the roses in her childhood garden.

Her hand closed into a fist around the bullet, cold as ice against her skin.

Hatter inched one eye open, daring a look at her, and whatever he saw must have been strange, because he looked quite alarmed. She stood up carefully, not daring to uncurl her hands. He sat up, still wincing. Though the bullet had been stopped, the bruise it left from dispersed momentum must have hurt quite a lot.

She punched him in the face.

"Ow! Alice! What the hell! Y'gonna finish what Dodo started?" He rubbed his jaw.

"Don't you dare act like you didn't damn well deserve it," she said coldly, dropping the bullet in her pocket. She leaned back against the cool glass of the cockpit and simmered. "I said you didn't have to tell me what your angle was, but that doesn't mean you got permission to sell me out."

"Oh, come on," he complained. "I didn't think you'd care about your jewelry more than your _boyfriend,_ not when you followed 'im through the Looking Glass and jumped out of a Scarab to get him back!"

"You had no idea what I would think, and you didn't care. You had no right to make that call for me."

He scoffed. "Well I didn't know it were the bloody Stone of Wonderland, did I? Of course it's worth more than any one man, Oyster or not."

"I think I should hit you again," Alice said, shoving her hands in her pockets to avoid temptation.

Hatter looked affronted, and scrambled to his feet, but before either of them could say anything else, a horizontal crack of light floated down from the top of the bus's double doors. With a little 'ding!' of arrival, they opened onto the gray light of the city. Alice darted through them, and turned left out of the courtyard at random.

She wasn't really trying to lose Hatter, though, and with a noise of dismay, remembered again how dangerous this place was-- she'd come across one of the many sudden drops to the canyon floor far, far below. She actually saw the glimmer of water-- the river she had followed in from the lake.

A brief flare of fear uncurled in her chest, but she shoved the feeling away, almost in annoyance. Didn't she have enough to deal with right now?

She stepped back from the edge, and kept walking. Hatter hurried to catch up.

"Where are you going?" he demanded. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened back there. I admit, I acted impetuously."

Alice spun on her heel and stabbed her finger into his face. "Selfishly!" she shouted at him. "You acted _selfishly._ And I don't know why I'm so upset, when I knew something like this would happen, but I am. Excuse me for expecting more from you."

"Knew this would-- hey! I said I was sorry, there's no call for--"

"No!" She'd had it with all his deflection, had it utterly with being _handled._ "You could have told me your plan, and you chose not to."

"You would have said no!" He looked defensive, irritated, and actually a little uneasy.

"For good reason, you asshole!" Tears of frustration pricked at her eyes. "Jeez, what a mess. Look, why do you even care what I think? It's clear enough this was just business as usual for you. Shame it went wrong with the gun and all."

He leaned over her, eyes sparking. "Business as usual? Let me tell you, Alice, I'd really like if my life was different. I play both sides of the Court to survive: managing the Tea Shop to keep the Suits off my back, while I feed and smuggle for the Resistance. People they dislike tend to end up dead, or worse. Sure, it were a bit of a gamble, but I thought this was the best way to get ahead for all of us."

Alice refused to flinch. "If it was just you, maybe I'd allow that. But you gambled with my life-- and Jack's life too." Not to mention all the rest of the humans trapped in the Casino. She scratched instinctively at the cloth covering the Glow, lost, and even more aware of how fragile her position was.

At least she knew she had something to bargain with, though, as reluctant as she was to think about the ring.

Hatter caught her glance towards her arm, and suddenly looked very tired himself. "Okay," he said carefully. "Look, clearly this didn't work out the way I wanted. But I still think there's got to be something. Let's head back to the Shop. We can regroup and figure out what to do next."

"Wouldn't the Resistance look there first? And what's this 'we' stuff?"

Hatter scratched the back of his neck. Despite his layers of artifice, Alice noticed, he actually had a fairly readable face.

"I figure we've got time, since they're so scared of venturing out of the Library. Dodo hasn't seen the surface in three year, or more, since things got too hot. They will come after us, but not now, and not any time before dark."

He turned to go, then stopped. "And as for 'we,' I figure you might have a slight hint of a point. About, ah, gambling. Figure I at least owe you a new plan."

Alice almost smiled.

"Fair enough," she replied, and followed him, once again, into the forest of skyscrapers.


	7. Past is (not) Behind

Hatter gestured a lot with his hands as he spoke, sketching out the shapes of possible plans as they wound their way back to the Tea Shop. He had promised a real dinner, not just stale biscuits and tea, and Alice was admittedly paying far more attention to daydreams of sandwiches and omelets than his half-cocked ideas.

“No, you see,” he said animatedly, “going back to the shop is a good place to start, because the Resistance won’t come near. They’re far too afraid of the Suits to risk it. And the Suits are around all the time, true enough, making deliveries and meeting with informants and such, but they don’t know anything is wrong--”

Alice was yanked off her feet so hard that one foot actually skimmed over the edge of the drop off as Hatter pulled her away from their path, hiding them both behind a derelict phone booth. She would have protested or even screamed-- he’d almost made her lose her balance!-- but his other hand clamped over her mouth like an iron vise.

Movement swarmed around the glass-fronted doors to the Tea Shop. Men in dark glasses and sharp suits bore very large machine guns, and suits emblazoned on their lapels like a pack of cards-- Nines and Tens, mostly, the number offset in gray above a similarly charcoal heart.

A man in a club-shaped hat and an oddly Victorian balloon-sleeved coat over the requisite suit spoke sharply to a hunched figure in a ratty raincoat and battered hat-- Alice gasped into Hatter’s hand. Ratty.

“I said something smelled about him,” Hatter whispered darkly. “Th’rat sold me out. I’ll never be able to go back there now. Damn!”

Alice felt her heart in her throat as they crouched, hidden, watching the Suits interrogate the Wonder-buyers. Even Hatter let out a noise of protest when one man was tossed, screaming, into the canyon by a man in a white rabbit mask.

“Oh my God,” she said helplessly. Her worst fear, if she’d thought about it.

At some unseen signal, the masked man looked right at their hiding place, and the two went stiller than ever, hoping he hadn’t seen them. His head turned eerily, slowly, with a sickening series of mechanical jerks, and Alice realized in horror that he wasn’t wearing a mask at all.

The rabbit’s head was his own, and he stared at them with doll-blank eyes as he began to stalk towards them.

“Bloody hell, he definitely sees us. Run!”

Hatter yanked her up to her feet and, still holding hands, they dove for the cover of the buildings on the other side of the bridge. Alice could hear the urgent calls of the lead Suit, the Club, as the foot-soldier Hearts gave chase, guns drawn.

In a complete reversal of their earlier trek through the puzzlebox of a city, this time they went down, down, down with all possible speed. Alice jumped over cracks and tangled shrubbery, shoved her way through the underbrush and decaying brick walls, and scrambled down ladders and stairs as if her life depended on it. Her heart stopped with each new descent, but each time she kept going, realizing what Hatter had in mind. If they could just get to the river, there would be a way out.

“Can’t be, can’t be. He’s dead. T’s impossible.” 

How Hatter had the breath to speak at all was mindboggling, but Alice caught the drift of his muttered swearing as they ran.

“Who?” she gasped, fighting a stitch in her side. “Who was that guy?”

Hatter glanced over distractedly as they finally reached the city’s floor. The river was a mere block away-- they’d almost made it, but Alice could hear the echoing footsteps of the posse not far behind.

“Someone who should be dead,” Hatter said tightly. “The Queen’s favorite assassin. Mad March.”

“What do you mean, should be dead? He looked surprisingly mobile if he’s supposed to be dead!”

Hatter shrugged, but his face displayed mingled rage, hatred, and no small amount of fear. Clearly the two had history, though Alice knew it wasn’t something she could ask.. 

“I don’t disagree, but the Queen has a way of keeping her favorites around. I was drunk for a week when she had him beheaded, but I guess something made her change her mind.”

He very carefully avoided looking at her face, as he said it, eyes fixed instead on the Stone.

A small speedboat made of wood with brown plastic paneling-- very Seventies, Alice noticed absently-- was moored at the river’s edge. He told her to untie the line as he got the engine started.

Alice fumbled with the knots, ripping at them with blunt nails as he explained. 

“This is my smuggling boat. There’s a bit of a knack to starting the engine.” He hauled at the starter cord, but the engine refused to turn over. “Which apparently I never learned!”

Scowling, he threw himself at the steering wheel and punched at the controls. He twisted the key viciously as Alice threw off the last of the rope and they floated slowly away from the dock. She looked up fearfully as the Suits came into view, ducking when they fired directly at them. Puffs of dirt and scattered stone danced at the edge, and she yanked her fingers back.

“Come on, come on!” Hatter swore at the boat, and Alice was about to jump out and start running again when it finally roared to life, shoving her back in the wooden bucket seat and sending gouts of frothy wake over the hunting posse.

Just in time. Just in time. Alice watched the crowd mill around in frustration at the water’s edge, before the Club pulled out a surprisingly modern cell phone and began spitting orders into it.

“Calling for a Scarab to follow us,” Hatter shouted over the waves. “They’ll be after us soon.”

She didn’t reply, just watched the figures fade into the shoreline. Mad March, alone among all the men, didn’t stomp his feet or show any signs of thwarted vexation at all. He paced back and forth along the water’s edge, then stopped and stared after them with those horrible bone-china eyes. 

Whether he knew Hatter or not, he seemed to stare directly and only at her.

When she could no longer make out any distinguishing features of the edge of the city, she turned back around and slumped in her seat.

“So much for that plan,” she said flatly. “Now what?”

He looked over, sharing her frustration. “Honestly, I figure we need to hide. We can’t fight the posse, and we can’t run forever with them flying after us, but if we can buy some time, maybe we can make our way back later after we’ve lost them.”

He headed for the far shore, a low, velvety-green line of trees which stretched up to cover the foothills of the mountains which ringed the lake. In the furthest purple distance, Alice saw titanic mushrooms, bigger even than the mountains, stabbing up to support the sky like Atlas out of myth.

For a brief moment, she wondered if Wonderland was really as large as those mushrooms indicated, or if, somehow, it was impossibly small, a tiny pocket in the fabric of the world she knew. She supposed it didn’t matter, since she couldn’t escape either way, but she felt suddenly wistful for how interesting it would have been to explore and find out, if she hadn’t been running for her life. Dark and filled with murder it might be, but she had to admit the world itself was beautiful.

A thought occurred to her.

“Wait. You said ‘we’ll try and get back’ after losing them. Back to the city? Why would we go back there? And why do you keep saying ‘we’ when you were so eager to sell me out before?”

She knew her voice was sharp with suspicion and desperation, and maybe he didn’t deserve it, but Hatter was deliberately so damn inscrutable that she just didn’t know what to think.

 

“The Looking Glass is the most heavily guarded piece of kit in Wonderland,” he said slowly, steering the boat towards the deepening, dusky forest on the opposite shore. “There are no-go areas in this town and you’re gonna need my help if we’re going to make it out of here in one piece.”

“Not without Jack,” Alice growled, sinking even lower in her seat and wrapping herself tighter in her coat against the spray.

“The Casino’s in the other direction, and way too heavily guarded. Any attempt to get him out would raise alarms that would make your escape impossible! You’re just gonna have to cut your losses and get out of here while you can.”

“No!” It wasn’t so much that she wouldn’t leave Jack behind. Or any of the Oysters left alive. It was partly that, but irrational as it was, Alice decided she would rather die than be the kind of person who just left when things got tough.

Hatter shook his head, exasperation and something sadder writ against his features.

“Jack’s a lucky guy,” he said, so quietly she almost didn’t hear him.

He wrenched the boat suddenly, throwing her against the side. Alice looked up sharply, willing to ignore her despair to rip him a new one, but then the shadow fell over them, huge as a cloud, and she looked up.

The Scarab floated, droning faintly, sharp limbs and dangling cells gleaming and twisting in the wind.

“Damn,” Alice muttered, eyes wide as they veered away from the impossible craft. They were, technically, faster, in the same way a sparrow is faster than the Hindenburg. But it wouldn’t matter much that they could dodge and evade, for the insectile ship was so large that it would just keep coming on and on.

“Before we can do anything else,” Hatter shouted,”we’ve got to shake that Royal Flush!” And he stabbed the speedboat forward towards the ominous, green-furred shore.


	8. Jabberwocky

They draped green fronds from some now-naked tree in deep, fluffy piles over the boat, and Alice hoped the scant protection would be enough to buy time as she headed after Hatter into the Forest of Wabe, as he’d named it. It looked fairly obvious that the newly broken branches were concealing something, but as the droning of the Scarab grew ever louder, she was forced to admit they didn’t have the time to do much more.

The sound of the ship grew fainter as she stomped deeper and deeper into the forest. Odd clicks and eerie wails rose and fell at odd intervals around them, like an uneasy chorus aware that they invited danger. 

Something shrieked behind her, and Alice jumped, crashing into Hatter’s side in agitation.

“What was that?” she hissed, heart pounding. “Did you hear that?”

Hatter gulped, face as open-- and afraid-- as she’d ever seen it.

“Jabberwock. That,” he said shakily, “Is a sign that you should find a tree to climb. Right now.”

He shoved her away, looking wildly around, and to her credit, Alice did look around for a safe place to get off the ground.

Briefly. For a second.

She turned back, hands on her hips. “What? Why climb a tree? What are you going to do?”

The shrieking, razor-edged howl grew closer, ululating through the mis-cast shadows and stirring the branches on the trees.

“I’m going to sic it on the posse,” he said tightly. 

Alice scoffed. “That’s your plan?”

“Yes,” he shouted, throwing his hands in the air. “After it gets a good look at me! Now will you just. Please! GO!” 

He shoved her again. She kicked him in the shin, and crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly and immediately done with his bullshit.

“That’s a terrible plan,” she snapped.

Hatter wheeled around and leaned right in her face, face flushed with spirit. “Look, if you could just!--”

A branch snapped, if by branch Alice meant an entire damn tree, and a dark, scaly shape finned out into the dappled sunlight.

Hatter grabbed her hand. All the blood drained from his face, and she hadn’t even seen him this scared with a gun in his face. 

“Alice! Run!”

If he had kept holding her hand, she would think much, much later, they might not have run off in different directions, and things might have turned out very differently indeed.

 

Alice pelted into the shadows, dodging around oddly-shaped trees and crashing through underbrush in shades of green, blue, and purple. Strange mushrooms oozed and popped underfoot, and if she cared at all about her clothes while running for her life, she would have certainly worried her about staining the leather of her boots.

But in that moment there was nothing but fear and blurring landscape and the hot, rank breath of the Jabberwock.

She knew she lost speed every time she glanced around, but Hatter had dashed off towards the cove where they had hidden the boat, and she couldn’t see him. She hadn’t realized in time that his plan required leading the monster in that direction, but by the time she had, it was too late. The Jabberwock had followed her, not Hatter, and she couldn’t stop now, it was too close.

She didn’t have the breath to shout, as she leaped over a fallen log and nearly tripped. She caught glances of a saurian body the size of a house, wet, gleaming eyes, and a neck that was entirely too damn long to belong on a predator. 

Its teeth were the size of tombstones, and it was really, really fast.

Alice darted and weaved through a stand of smaller trees, hoping to slow it down since nothing that size could bank worth a damn, but realized too late that she’d outsmarted herself: thick, twisting roots like anacondas boiled out of the ground, frozen into knotted mounds of wood which tripped her as easily as anything. She hit the ground in a sunken hollow hard enough to sting her palms and bloody her knees, and twisted viciously around just in time to see the head of the Jabberwock emerge from the tree canopy overhead.

Frothing and hissing with rage, the Buick-sized mouth clamped shut on open air, scant inches from her battered, bruised feet. Alice looked the scariest thing in Wonderland dead in its goggling, chameleon eyes, and was abruptly so beyond done that she barely registered scrabbling around for a stone, fingers closing around a broken shard of marble, and she drove it into the closest liquid orb with an oddly innocuous pop.

Vitreous fluid-- which glowed faintly green, she noticed, like a glowstick-- coated her hand and makeshift dagger, oozing down her wrist and sleeve like a glove, all the way down to her elbow.

The world shattered in an impossible, supersonic shriek of pain and rage, and stand of trees be damned, the monster shoved through in a splintering crash--

To fall into a pit of sharpened stakes, dozens of feet deep. It was impaled in a dozen places, and dead within minutes, but Alice hardly noticed as she fell-slid in a shower of dirt down the hole as well.

It’s an even harder landing than before. Had she been awake for it, she’d have broken bones.

Her eyes cracked open an endless moment later to see the shadows had changed. They've done that a lot here, but she was fairly sure some actual time had passed. She turned her head, grimacing at the fiercely jangling pain of pulled muscles, and screamed for the first time since falling into the lake when she saw the sightless, ruined eye of the dead Jabberwock. 

A wooden pole pierced through the other, inches from her right hand. She yanked it away and recoiled bodily until she rebounded off the wall of the pit, coughing as more dark earth showers down.

“So much for the Gravity-Assisted Snare, Mark Four,” groaned another weary, elderly, very British voice.

If the Resistance had followed her all this way to kill her, Alice thought as she scrambled to her aching feet, they would damn well have to get in line.

The man peering over the edge of the hole had faded white hair and a thin beard, but that was where the resemblance to the Resistance elevator-slash-bus-driver ended. His beard was thin and white and sculpted into a deliberate S-curve that had to have taken a hot roller. Even from a few dozen feet below, his blue eyes seemed to see far too much, and they pierced all the way down through the increasing gloom of falling night. 

He also seemed to be wearing armor. White armor.

Monster and criminal element forgotten, her jaw dropped. “Are you a knight?”

He rolled his eyes. “Heavens, no, are you mad? The Knights were all wiped out years ago.”

“Then who are you?” She propped her hands on her hips, flinched at her bruises, then again when she remembered the Jabberwock slime all over her hand. 

“Why, I’m a knight!” He beamed goofily down at her. Ugh, he was as bad as Hatter. “Sir Charles Eustace Fotheringale Malfoy III. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss..?”

“Alice,” she replied, looking around for a way to climb out. “Nice to meet you too. Did you dig this pit trap? Would you mind helping me out?”

She heard a gasp like a punctured lung, and looked up to see the knight-- Sir Charles-- in a state of horror and awe.

“Alice… of Legend? Can it be?” His wizened face was grey with shock. “After all these years… have you come back as it was foretold?”

And Hatter had said not to worry.

“That depends on what was foretold,” she said warily. 

“Gather the scattered pearls… bring the blinded one out into the light of truth… and destroy the Queen and her House of Cards forever…” He seemed nearly lost in a daze of memory.

“Some of that sounds right,” she replied firmly. Fake it til you make it. “The Queen has wronged many from both worlds, and I won’t let her get away with it.”

Did she have a plan, besides free Jack and as many other Oysters as she could find, and prevent the Queen from ever stealing anyone else away? No.

Would that stop her from finding a way into the Casino? Also no.

“Brave words, my lady. It is my honor and glory to assist you on your path!” 

A knotted net flew over the side and trailed all the way to the ground. Alice gripped the weave and slowly, achingly, hauled her battered body out of the hole.  
The ancient knight helped her to her feet, chattering about his invention and marveling at how she’d slain the Jabberwock, then led her over to a pair of slump-backed horses who looked well-groomed, if incredibly old. Just like their master.

He knotted the net to a set of parallel bars which were designed to drag behind the horse, along the forest floor. Just as he was helping her mount, she froze in consternation.

“Hatter,” she said dumbly. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten. “Can we try to find… my friend? We entered the woods to get rid of the people chasing us-- Mad March and some Casino Suits. I don’t want to leave him behind!” She glanced around frantically, but even before she’d fallen and hit her head, she had no way of knowing which direction he’d run in.

The knight shook his head. “Terribly sorry, but it’s best we get you someplace safe, Lady Alice. I know not where your vassal has fled, but if you are indeed being followed by such dangerous men, we must retreat swiftly while we have the advantage.”

She scanned the forest, not wanting to admit it. Oh, she knew that getting caught now would ruin everything, and Hatter was pretty clever and cunning-- not to mention a much faster runner, dammit-- but leaving him out there in the Forest of Wabe didn’t feel like a viable plan either

But she couldn’t just wander aimlessly, and she needed Sir Charles’s help, and Jack was still waiting. She nodded wearily, and the knight mounted his own chestnut horse, and led her through the dappled shadows towards the forested mountains that spread out before them.

She hoped Hatter would be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> [I love the entire aesthetic of the movie, and would someday love to live in either an underground library city or a warehouse loft with grass for a carpet. Seriously, I LOVE this show. The characters are so, so fun.
> 
> That said, for as smart and badass as Alice is supposed to be, there are a few instances where she's so oblivious I throw things at my TV. AU for street smarts-- or people smarts, I guess-- and a few other things.


End file.
